Stephen:

The TimeCommander is a great product, but it does not have an RS-485 port that is necessary for the new LCD controllers to work. An RS-485 port is similar to SCSI in that up to 16 separate devices can be connected in a daisy chain fashion with individual addresses. Presently, we offer a thermostat that operates on the RS-485 port, and a device that will allow Stargate to overlay text on a standard television. There are sure to be more products available that will also communicate via RS-485.

If the Stargate is a little more than your budget, you might consider a Stargate Lite. It is a few hundred dollars less but does not have the telephone or voice mail features (you can add that at a later time by purchasing a plug-in board).

Regarding the price, we offer the JDS Stargate at a little more than SmartHome (HAS), but we are able to provide you with greater value because we are able to order JDS products directly from JDS and configure them differently (JDS is only a few miles from our office in San Diego). We can add expanded voice memory that will double the digital voice recording capacity from 20 to 40 minutes. Also, by ordering directly we can ensure that you recieve the latest firmware and software with the products. In addition, we have been writing "code" for the Stargate since it was introduced several years ago and we include a sample "schedule" with your purchase. It has sample "events" that can be cut and pasted into your schedule. The sample schedule has both simple and very complex code so you can get a good feel of what you can do with a Stargate. The schedule has comment lines that explain what the code is doing. We have found that our customers that like to do their own programming, find the sample code valuable in getting them started and to be used as a reference later on.

The LCD "softkey" control panels are expected to sell for $399.

Robert
RCI Automation
[Link: ourworld.compuserve.com]